By Judi McLeod
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Every reporter worth his or her salt in Canada wishes they were Ezra Levant today.
That is if they are honest enough to admit it to themselves.
Within two days of the election of Stéphane Dion as new leader of the Liberal Party, Levant delivered news completely missed by the mainstream media to unsuspecting Canadians: Stephane Dion the possible next prime minister of Canada is a citizen of France.
"Even Michael Ignatieff, the second-place finisher in the Liberal contest, never took U.S. citizenship despite 30 years living there. It was chutzpah that Ignatieff, a de facto American returned to Canada to lead us. But at least he had the sense to remain a Canadian, at least legally," Levant wrote in his Calgary Sun column.
"So what is Dion's excuse? The man wasn't born abroad, as was our other leading dual-citizen, Michaelle Jean. And at least Jean had the taste to renounce her French citizenship (after public outcry) upon acceding to the post of governor general. But Dion was born right here in Canada. Yet he is a dual citizen of France."
By Arthur Weinreb
Monday, December 4, 2006
Stéphane Dion has come a long way since the Liberal leadership race began last February. At the outset Dion was one of the few people, if not the only person who thought that he had a chance of succeeding Paul Martin. Dismissed out of hand with the notion that the Liberals would not choose another leader from Quebec this time, Dion was never seen as a serious contender for the throne until after the 2nd ballot when Gerard Kennedy took himself out of the race and threw his support to the Quebec MP.
By Klaus Rohrich
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Canada's chattering classes have had such orgasmic praise for the "surprise" selection of Stephane Dion as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, that one might think many have spilled their scotch glasses and shorted out their computers. Saying that praise for Dion by the Canadian punditry was effusive is like saying Pamela Anderson is a girl.
By Beryl Wajsman, Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
"A little sincerity is a dangerous thing and a lot of it is absolutely fatal."
~ Oscar Wilde
Stéphane Dion is a man of integrity and intellectual rigour. But the Liberal Party is certainly not characterized by these traits. And I am not writing here of Adscam. For if it was simply that, then we would also need to focus on the billion dollar gun registry; the human resources boondoggle; Hewlett-Packard's $165 million overcharging of the Department of National Defense; retroactive tax-haven changes costing Canadians hundreds of millions of dollars and the abridgment of due process and abuse of state power to destroy enemies of the Party or its leaders.
By Arthur Weinreb
Monday, December 4, 2006
It's really hard to believe but the Liberal Party of Canada elected a man who posseses these qualities. Not only is Stéphane Dion a long time Liberal, he has actually sat in the House of Commons for the past 10 years as a Liberal MP. And to top it off, he's has always been ordinarily resident in the country that he hopes one day to lead.
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